The patent, which was first reported by The Verge, is called 'Physical store online shopping control.' It describes how a retailer can monitor customers' Internet use--while on the store's WiFi--and deter them from checking competitors' prices. A practice that occurs so frequently, people have given it a name: 'showrooming.'

When the technology detects users attempting to compare an item price on a competitors' website, the retailer can try to persuade them to buy it in-store by offering a coupon or to price-match the competitor. It can also block users from browsing the competitor's site altogether.

While it sounds like something befitting George Orwell's 1984, one can already see the possibilities for the technology. While Amazon's patent waxes lovingly about the plight of the brick-and-mortar retail store, it stops short of actually naming a reason for the tool. The following possibilities may be in the offing: Amazon might decide to license it to brick and mortar retailers, for instance. Or it may just use the technology itself.

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